'NONSENSE TO SAY IT WOULD HELP CLEAN UP OCEANS'

He said: “Ten rivers transport up to 95 per cent of all the plastic found in the oceans. Eight of them are in Asia. The other two are in Africa.”

The Department for Environment announced plans for the scheme – commonplace in mainland Europe – last year.

Consultation launched with industry in February and is due to close next month.

At the time Mr Gove said: “We can be in no doubt that plastic is wreaking havoc on our marine environment. It is absolutely vital that we act now to tackle this threat and curb the millions of plastic bottles a day that go unrecycled.”

The Government plans that currently just 43 per cent of 13billion plastic bottles sold each year in the UK are recycled.

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